Name of the rose varies from region to region

Regional differences are all part of the fun of learning French and you should not be surprised if the way certain words are said in your area is different to what you learnt at school.

Differences like hearing letters sounded at the end of words that are usually silent are among those you may have come across.

Reader Mary Douche, for example, told us that one of her south-west friends says moins as moinZ, even though in most of France the last consonant is not pronounced. At the opposite end of the country, in the north-east, they pronounce the T on vingt.

Lots of readers from the south notice the change that occurs in some of the nasal vowels there, such as Scheenagh Harrington, who said she loves the way people in Castres say ‘peng’ for pain and ‘demeng’ for demain.

According to Chris Sears, at the station in Bergerac they announce “ ...